Under the Skanstullsbron over a small byroad passing by a popular Swedish club, A number of cables are strung over the road by two metal scaffolding pillars. The whole construction seems temporary, as if it was a response to a reconstruction of the road, but there is no close by construction ongoing.
they hang there completely inert, they are completely opaque in their function. I dont have a clue as to what they actually do, but for the sake of exploration, I imagine them to be fiber optic cables, connecting this little urban island beneath the bridge to the wide world web.
Given that context its a beautifully primitive junction in such an advanced system as the internet, a cable slung drirectly over metal scaffolding, tied with zip ties to bare metal. It showcases the modularity of solutions that are available to the physical infrastructure of the internet.
That is the part of these systems that seem so alluringly egalitarian and accessible, simplicity, modularity, scalability.
But there is good reason to be critical of the Internets supposed free nature. in this single cable there is an immense vulnerability to failure, in a system that is increasingly becoming more more crucial to a functioning life.
/Erik
archandphil 
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